Tuesday, June 24, 2008

It Shouldn't Happen in a By Election...

Imagine if you were a shop owner and found this poster suddenly appearing above your door...

You'd probably be none too pleased. Sadly for the shop, the Lib Dem deputy Mayor of Thame lives in the flat above. Since the poster has been put up, Whittals have experienced a rather dramatic dop off in trade, hence this rather strongly worded disclaimer on their front door.

47 comments:

Anonymous
said...

This must surely contravene some planning legislation or bye-laws ?

I'd be tempted to bung some hoodies £50 and a few cans of Special Brew to take it down, but would desist since I am of course a decent law-abiding citizen who would not encourage any form of law-breaking or incite any bad behaviour by the 'yoof' of today.

I saw very large signs used by the Lib Dems in 1997 (and ? 2001) General Election in my two local constituencies where they were the principal opposition to the Conservatives. It didn't do them any good then and all it does is alienate the electorate. Will they never learn

Yes, at least there should be a law against other parties than the Conservatives putting up bilboards. But I'm sure that when the Conservatives will get to power, this is the first thing to be corrected.

"I'd just rip it down. It could fall off and hit someone on the head:)"

John Pardoe's "silly wig" silly clearly being the operative word. Sir, you have every right to be a Tory and have a different political perspective from those of us who are Lib Dem, but I find it completely unacceptable that you would call us unpatriotic. As someone who has served this country all my life in public service, including active service in the army - I find that attitude infantile and insulting. How we serve our country and what we believe is best for us as a nation may differ from you, but frankly I find your attitude which besmirches 25% of the nation you clearly feel you are patiotic towards, contradictory in the extreme!!! As for the poster, please, get a life - if farmers are permitted to constuct giant posters all over their land, and people put up posters on public grass verges, it is silly to complain that someone exercising their democratic right to express their political views on their own property is out of order, and I thought Tories believed the Englishman's house was his castle?!

I suspect that the owner of the shop has got some flak for the sign, after all, it does give the impression of an endorsement.

That said, I'm more than happy to let the Liberals put up these signs. The results speak for themselves.

Mixed bag for them here in Cardiff, but I'm a little confused as to why in Gabalfa Ward we have got no 'thank you' after returning 2 Liberal Councillors, while Heath got a big 'Thank You' from the Liberals after two of their councillors were ejected, the third only being returned after a recount. Maybe they wanted people to reject them?

And they were a moody lot in Cardiff West, too, despite winning in Llandaff. Came bottom of the poll in Ely Ward, with only half the Tory votes in a very working-class ward.

I really don't see what the shopkeeper has to apologise for. He's made it clear the thing's nothing to do with him.

A few years ago, a householder in Pershore put up the same LD poster on his front garden fence. Unfortunately, it was right next to the rather unusual street name where he lived. The name of the street? ... "No Gains".

Shame the shop keeper is so neutral. In 2001 GE, in Conwy, we had libdem office as near neighbours. They were installed over a business who were so enraged by their posters that they asked us for some even bigger Conservative ones, all over shared entrance.

Some of the Conservatives' comments here are ridiculous.What a bunch of precious petals some of you are if you object to this.

Now let's try to reverse it.If a Conservative had put this up in a similar situation in a LibDem constituency would you be cheering/smiling about it?

And as for 'John Pardoe's silly wig' saying that LibDems are unpatriotic, well I've been visiting various literate political sites for just over a year and that is the most stupid comment I've ever seen.If it was serious then the poster is Not Very Bright and if it was meant to be a joke then the poster needs to remenber that the most important feature of a joke is that it should be funny.

Political parties go crazy for by-elections. They throw time and money and big name politicians at the poor unfortunate electors, already abandoned (in one way or another) by their MP. Why? Because a by-election is an over-sized poll, the sort of poll that is so big that no can help but listen to. But it is a poll with one other crucial difference: the politicians can cheat. The politicians know who the sample is and there is nothing – no laws, no conventions, no scruples – stopping them from using all available means to change their minds. So: armies of button-men, volunteer fodder and big beasts descend on the electors of the constituency and bully, wheedle, bore and pulverize them into submission. The prize if you do it well? A boost in this quasi-opinion poll even if you’re not performing better, even if you haven’t gotten more popular. The by-election is a chance to win just by being dirtier, meaner and more resourceful than your opponents. The Lib Dems have been doing it for years…

Read more at my blog, Just who the hell are we? on wordpress.com, at:http://adammcnestrie.wordpress.com/

The shop did the right thing under the (admittedly unusual) circumstances. Interesting that it was a LibDem poster that negatively impacted their trade -- that tells a story in itself.

Just for the record: I, as a Conservative, have no quibble with the LibDems putting up posters anywhere that is legitimate for them to be located.

As others have said, though, it doesn't generally do them any good; and the "winning here" line is so stupid. The voting public immediately sense desperation and dishonesty, and bang go a whole chunk of votes as a result. There's no intelligence in this "winning here" line whatsoever, nor in any of the other LibDem trickery such as their deliberately misleading vote share bar-charts.